Australia's native and plantation forests are an important natural resource providing a wide range of products and valuable services to the community.

Australia is one of the most mega-diverse countries and the forests of south-western Australia are one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots. Forests provide protection for soil and water resources, and are increasingly being recognised for their potential as carbon sinks through their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. They are also the foundation for a broad range of cultural and spiritual experiences for diverse groups of people and a major tourist attraction for Australian and overseas visitors, providing for a vast array of recreational and educational activities.

Australia's native and plantation forests provide the vast majority of the timber and paper products used by Australians. Employment and wealth flow directly from the wood products derived from the forests, such as sawn timber, fibreboard, plywood and paper. These forests and plantations also support a variety of other products and services, such as honey, wildflowers, natural oils, firewood and craft wood.

The Australian Government together with state and territory governments have developed a National Forest Policy Statement that outlines agreed objectives for the management of Australia’s forests. The policy sets out a vision of ecologically sustainable management of the forest estate that integrates environmental, commercial and community values and uses. These values are embodied in regional forest agreements negotiated for New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.

As a member of the international forest initiative - the Montreal Process - Australia has contributed to the development of the seven national criteria and 44 national indicators for the sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests. Australia has adopted the internationally agreed criteria and indicators, and revised them and added others to reflect its own unique forests, providing a consistent framework for monitoring and reporting on the status of its forests. Information is collected covering the themes of biological diversity, productive capacity, forest health, soil and water values, carbon, socioeconomic and legal and institutional frameworks. This is compiled every five years, by the National Forest Inventory (NFI) within the Bureau of Rural Sciences, to produce Australia’s State of the Forests Report.

A forest is defined by the NFI as an area incorporating all living and non-living components, dominated by trees having usually a single stem and a mature or potentially mature stand height exceeding two metres, and with an existing or potential crown cover of over-storey strata about equal to or greater than 20%. This definition includes Australia’s diverse native forests, regardless of age. It is also sufficiently broad to encompass areas of trees that are sometimes described as woodlands.

Based on this definition, the total area of native forest (parts of which are considered 'old growth') reported in the latest Australia's State of the Forests Report is estimated at 162.7 million hectares (mill. ha), which is about 21% of Australia’s land area (table 17.1).

Some 121.6 mill. ha (75%) of native forest were on public land, and 38.9 mill. ha (24%) were on private land with the remaining 1% on land of unresolved tenure. The 121.6 mill. ha of forests growing on public land, consisted of 75.6 mill. ha (62%) on leasehold tenure, 21.5 mill. ha (18%) in Nature Conservation Reserves, 13.1 mill. ha (11%) on other Crown land, and 11.4 mill. ha (9%) managed by state forest authorities for multiple uses including wood production, recreation and informal reserves. Including forested leasehold land and private freehold forest, some 114.5 mill. ha, or 70% of Australia’s native forests, were privately managed.

17.1 NATIVE FOREST AREAS - December 2002

NSW

Vic.

Qld

SA

WA

Tas.

NT

ACT

Aust.

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

'000 ha

Dominant Canopy Species

Eucalypt

Tall

3 820

2 465

1 189

1

170

1 130

-

28

8 801

Medium

18 190

3 407

36 022

596

12 399

1 281

11 268

81

83 246

Low

186

519

1 373

1 208

2 646

65

16 643

7

22 648

Mallee

22

1 171

122

6 044

4 969

-

-

-

12 329

Total

22 218

7 562

38 706

7 849

20 184

2 476

27 911

116

127 024

Acacia

1 251

63

6 984

1 939

4 563

74

1 613

-

16 488

Melaleuca

44

96

5 301

1

-

19

1 593

-

7 056

Rainforest

486

16

2 885

-

5

598

224

-

4 214

Casuarina

1 000

4

216

763

40

1

14

-

2 039

Mangrove

3

2

196

19

173

-

355

-

749

Callitris

1 240

56

387

261

-

1

386

-

2 330

Other

415

135

1 059

34

398

-

738

-

2 780

Total

26 658

7 936

55 734

10 866

25 365

3 169

32 836

117

162 680

Tenure

Public

Multiple use forest(a)

2 496

3 312

2 925

-

1 600

1 062

-

-

11 395

Nature Conservation Reserve(b)

4 471

3 050

5 000

3 943

3 805

1 105

12

106

21 491

Other Crown land(c)

1 055

207

1 131

392

9 387

80

890

-

13 143

Leasehold(d)

9 470

46

35 581

5 255

8 920

-

16 313

11

75 596

Total

17 492

6 615

44 637

9 590

23 712

2 247

17 215

117

121 625

Private(e)

8 523

1 298

10 213

822

1 639

922

15 511

-

38 928

Unresolved tenure

643

23

883

454

14

-

110

-

2 127

Total

26 658

7 936

55 734

10 866

25 365

3 169

32 836

117

162 680

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

(a) Publicly-owned land (including State Forests) managed for multiple use including wood production.

(b) Public land formally reserved for environmental, conservation and recreation purpose; including national parks, state parks and Crown lands reserved for water catchment purposes.

(c) Reserved areas of educational, scientific and other public institutional land, including easements, Defence land, and other minor tenure classifications.

(d) Crown land leased for private use, such as for grazing or mining where the right to harvest or clear land must be approved by state/territory governments. Often known as pastoral leases.

(e) Land held under freehold title and private ownership; includes land held by designated Indigenous communities under freehold title with special conditions attached.

Source: National Forest Inventory, 2003 Australia's State of the Forests Report'

Australia’s plantation estate continued to expand in 2006. The total recorded area of plantation established reached 1.8 mill. ha to December 2006 (table 17.2). This was an increase of 78,000 ha (4.5%) over 2005. The proportion of hardwood species has increased to 44% of the total with softwood species making up just over half (56%) of the total area (graph 17.3). About 95% of the softwood plantations are Pinus radiata and other introduced pines. Nearly all of the hardwood plantations are native eucalypts, including Tasmanian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), shining gum (E. nitens) and flooded gum (E. grandis).

A diverse range of ownership arrangements exists in the Australian plantation industry, including a variety of joint venture and annuity schemes between public and private parties. For several years, most investment in new plantations has been by the private sector through managed investment schemes, which funded 86% of all new plantations in 2006 and now own 26% of the total plantation area (graph 17.4). The proportions of public and private plantations were equal at 46% in 1999. Privately-owned plantations now represent 59%, far exceeding public plantations at 36%. This difference is especially pronounced for hardwood plantations, about 86% of which are privately owned compared with 36% of softwood plantations.

Farm forestry generally refers to the incorporation of commercial tree growing into farming systems. This may take the form of small plantations, timber belts, wind breaks, alleys and wide-spaced trees, and may also include management of native forest for commercial returns.

Farm forestry has been adopted by relatively few Australian farmers, although a large proportion of them plant trees for land protection and amenity purposes.

Managing private native forests is a potentially important component of farm forestry given 24% of Australia’s total native forest area was on privately-owned land.

Wood and paper products

Australia's wood and paper products industries are important components of Australia's primary and secondary industry sectors. They are particularly important in providing economic development and employment in many regions of rural Australia. The industries include hardwood and softwood sawmilling, plywood and panels manufacturing, woodchip production and export, and the pulp and paper industries.

In 2005-06 total roundwood removed from forests declined by 1% to 26.7 mill. cubic metres (mill. m3). The removal of broad-leaved wood (primarily from native forests) declined 3% in 2005-06 to 12.3 mill. m3, while 1% more coniferous wood (mainly from plantations) was removed.

The value of exports of forest products in 2005-06 totalled $2.1 billion (b), of which 40% were woodchips and 28% paper and paperboard products. The value of imports of forest products in 2005-06 was $4.0b, of which 53% were paper and paperboard products and 10% sawnwood. This indicates a trade deficit in forest products of $1.9b in 2005-06. Australia produced 93% of its sawn timber needs in 2005-06, of which 70% came from softwood plantations while the remainder came from native forests. Imported sawn timber is mostly Radiata pine from New Zealand and Douglas fir (also known as Oregon) from North America.

The hardwood and softwood sawmilling industries comprise mills of various sizes which process wood into sawn timber and other products such as veneers, mouldings and floorings. The hardwood mills are generally small scale and scattered. The softwood mills are generally larger and more highly integrated with other wood-processing facilities. Australia's production of sawn timber in 2005-06 increased by 2% to 4.8 mill. m3 (table 17.5).

17.5 PRODUCTION OF WOOD AND SELECTED WOOD PRODUCTS

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

Sawn Australian-grown timber

Coniferous

’000 m3

2 877

3 088

3 415

3 456

3 596

Broadleaved

’000 m3

1 338

1 323

1 253

1 231

1 188

Total

’000 m3

4 215

4 411

4 668

4 687

4 784

Plywood

’000 m3

192

219

146

156

145

Particle board

’000 m3

965

1 025

1 048

944

1 002

Medium-density fibreboard

’000 m3

732

786

795

794

798

Paper and paperboard

Newsprint

’000 t

395

412

422

443

415

Printing and writing

’000 t

624

564

585

659

663

Household and sanitary

’000 t

198

194

200

197

217

Packaging and industrial

’000 t

1 679

1 892

1 956

1 945

1 926

Source: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 'Australian Forest and Wood Products Statistics' September and December quarters 2006.

Other value-added timber products include plywood, wood-based panels and reconstituted wood products. Australian wood-based panels include particleboard, medium-density fibreboard, and hardboard made from softwood or hardwood pulp logs, sawmill residues or thinnings.

Pulp and paper mills use roundwood thinnings, low-quality logs, harvesting residues and sawmill waste, recycled paper and paperboard to produce a broad range of pulp and paper products. Over the past five years there has been almost a four fold increase in the volume of wood for paper and paperboard sourced from eucalypt plantations as they have come into production. In 2005-06, production stood at 3.6 mill. m3, a 35% increase over the previous year. Wood for paper and paperboard sourced from native eucalypts has been in steady decline in recent years with 2005-06 production of 5.2 mill. m3 down 19% on the previous year. Similarly, use of coniferous wood for paper and paperboard is in decline.

Some 42% of the paper and paper products consumed domestically in 2005-06 were imported, with 87% of printing and writing paper coming from overseas. The majority of paper products produced domestically were packaging and industrial paper (60%) along with printing and writing papers, newsprint and tissue paper. Recycled paper now contributes about half of the fibre used in the production of all paper and paperboard.

Woodchips are mainly used in the production of Australia's paper and paper products. The woodchip export industry uses sawmill residues and timber which is unsuitable for sawmilling and not required by the pulp, paper and reconstituted wood-products industries. Before the advent of the woodchip export industry, much of this material was left in the forest after logging. Considerable quantities of sawmill waste material, which would otherwise be burnt, are also chipped for local pulpwood-using industries and for export. Up until 1990-91 at least 95% of woodchips exported from Australia had been eucalypt, but since then greater quantities of softwood woodchips have become available from pine plantations.

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